File sharing has become a very real and common force. We first saw Napster, then LimeWire, then P2Ps. Musicians and Record Companies have been very vocal about their loss in royalties due to their songs being downloaded for free.

Napster came under fire when major artists, such as Metallica, fought to get their songs out of the reach of file sharers. LimeWire, one of download.com's most downloaded programs, is being sued by major record labels. And recently, a 30-year-old mom from Minnesota lost a very costly legal battle with Sony BMG.

Something is going to give, and very soon.

For those who are not familiar with this activity, file sharing makes files available for others to download over the internet. The P2P (or peer to peer model) is the most common way that files are shared. Users store files on their personal computer and are then able to upload and download files.

If you have ever downloaded a file (a song, program, or movie, etc.), be aware that you are not alone. You will find yourself among a sea of raised hands. Nearly everyone has done it. Some might not even be aware that file sharing could lead to a potential day in court. If you were an early user of MySpace, you could easily download a song from someone's profile at no cost. Soon, as the popularity of this place for friends spread with profiles in the millions, songs were made less available to download. As innocent as this act of wanting to listen to your favorite track may have seemed, record labels began to sue.

According to MSNBC, record companies have filed over 26,000 lawsuits since 2003 against file sharing. Earlier this month, Jammie Thomas of Minnesota was ordered to pay $220,000, a rough breakdown of about $9,000 per song (24 songs in total). She was sued by six major record labels, including Sony BMG and Warner Brothers, for sharing more than 1,000 songs through Kazaa. She denied having done anything wrong, or even having a Kazaa account. But when she was contacted by various record companies, she replaced her hard drive due to technical issues shortly after.

This issue will continuously be covered in the media because it will not be an easy thing to cease. We are no longer measuring in megabytes or gigabytes. Terabytes of information are being downloaded, and record companies, filmmakers, writers and software companies alike are not too happy about it. There is no doubt, at least in my opinion, that many of these companies will have to find other means around file sharing in order to maintain revenues. For instance, last year the New York Times reported that Warner Brothers and YouTube struck a deal. YouTube would be authorized to show Warner Brothers Music videos, and Warner Brothers would share in YouTube's advertising profits. The suing will only do so much, to so many, for so long. File sharing sites and the record company big wigs are going to have to eventually work together.

Story by Destiny Lopez
Starpulse.com contributing writer